REPORT: Deadly cold snap sweeps across Russia and eastern Europe

A vicious cold snap has claimed nearly 200 lives across Russia and eastern Europe.

In Ukraine, Ukrainian health officials say 83 people - most of them homeless - have now died from this month's severe cold spell that has seen temperatures drop to minus 17 Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country.Record snowfalls trapped hundreds of vehicles in Ukraine earlier in December, with the capital, Kiev, experiencing its snowiest period since records began in 1881.

On Friday emergency services continued to help free stranded cars and trucks in the east of the country, still under a heavy blanket of snow.Severe weather is also hampering shipping in seas around the port of Sevastopol, in the Crimean peninsula.

Authorities have set up some 1,500 emergency centers to provide food and shelter for the nation's homeless as the freezing temperatures continue to bite.Earlier this week the Health Ministry said 190 people have sought medical help for hypothermia, and 162 had been hospitalized.

In a similar context, authorities have declared a state of emergency in northeastern Bulgaria as heavy snow and freezing temperatures are causing disruptions in both Bulgaria and Romania.           

Romanian police said Bulgarian authorities had stopped traffic at two border crossings due to the heavy snow and advised citizens not to travel to the worst-hit areas. Some thirty villages were without power in Bulgaria's Ruen district, and some also had no water. Almost all local roads were impassable.     

In Romania, the snow caused havoc on nine national highways and 180 towns and villages suffered power outages.

In Moscow, temperatures dropped to minus 26 Celsius, causing the death of 45 persons and more than 300 car accidents.

This as, A Russian citizen, resident of Novosibirsk, where temperatures have plummeted to -41 degrees Celsius, has released a video showing the surprising behaviour of boiling water in extremely cold temperatures.

Dmitry Klimensky tipped a pan of boiling water from the balcony of his seventh-floor apartment.

The water can be seen turning into a white icy mist before it reaches the ground.The experiment was filmed by two cameras, one inside the apartment and one in the yard.


REUTERS/AP/LBCI